KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand public will soon have a clearer picture of how competition is heating up the telco market as the Commerce Commission prepares its first "state of the market" report.
The commission plans to release the first of its annual reports containing a comprehensive set of statistics, commentary and analysis of the phone and internet market later in the year.
Director of the Commerce Commission's telecommunications branch Osmond Borthwick said it would be similar to the reporting undertaken by telecommunication watchdogs in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
"The point of it is to try and track with a little bit more detail what the impact of the initiatives - whether competitive or regulatory - are having out there in the marketplace," said Borthwick.
A sweeping review of the telecommunications market and introduction of the Telecommunications Amendment Act last year has enhanced the commission's monitoring powers.
Borthwick said although the commission had always done some monitoring when it was undertaking an investigation or market review, the new legislation gave it very explicit powers.
"We've got more capacity to look over the market as a whole, identify problems or bottlenecks and also - and this is an important part of it - check how the solutions that have been put in place are working.
"This very explicit power helps us keep track of the outcomes of things that we've done.
"The whole act is framed in terms of the long-term benefit of end users, but we haven't in the past tracked that in a very structured sort of a way. We have looked at it as the issues have arisen, but this is more about tracking it over a longer period."
The commission recently released the third of its quarterly reports in which it benchmarked New Zealand phone prices against other OECD countries.
Borthwick said there have been no surprises with the results to date, which show New Zealand consumers pay high phone prices when compared with consumers in the other 29 OECD countries.
He said even though the issues are not new - regulation is currently being considered for the mobile market - it is still worth understanding the trends.
"We've got a way to go so far as developing our monitoring capability," said Borthwick. "What we've put out there to date has been just the start really of what we plan to do."
It is understood the commission plan to use a third party to monitor the quality of service received by New Zealand broadband users.
It is believed to have looked at services from two suppliers and an announcement on the successful bidder is expected in the next two weeks.
THE PLAN
* The Commerce Commission will deliver a "state of the market" report.
* New Zealand consumers pay some of the highest phone prices in the OECD
* A decision on the commission's plan to use a third party to monitor the quality of broadband service is expected in the next two weeks.
